New Photo Casts Doubt on Wright Brothers Claim to Fame

The Wright Brothers are known throughout the world for being the first to lift an airplane off the ground with a powered engine, but their claim to fame has now been seriously called in to question after State lawmakers in Connecticut passed a bill that honors Gustave Whitehead, a German immigrant who supposedly flew a powered plane 150 feet in the city of Bridgeport two years before the famed Wright Brothers flight. The Smithsonian Institute has refuted Connecticut's claim and Tom Crouch, the museums aviation historian, says that "there is no legitimacy to the claim."

Mr. Crouch says that the supposed flight by Gustave Whitehead has been investigated and found to be an urban legend. Other experts aren't as certain and say that this claim should be investigated. Australian aviation historian John Brown claims that he came across a photo while searching files at a museum in Germany that may show Whitehead's plane in flight. This claim has been refuted by Crouch who says the photo offers no definitive proof and looks more like a "blotch" than a photo that offers any evidence to back up Mr. Brown's claim.

Whether the photo is authentic or not will be left for the experts to decide. I must say that it looks like a blotch in my layman's opinion, but I am definitely no expert. Does anyone believe that the photo offers definitive proof of Whitehead's supposed flight?